Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-18

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TO valuable discoveries. The scientist!
who are looking for a reason why tht
heat should be absent may not hit upor
shy valuable idea, but some practical me
chanic probably will.
Engineering warns persons to use
paints giving of bydro-cGrbon vapors
with great precsutiOD, and reIates the
following incidents: "While an Ameri
can mill was closed for repairs
the long iron tube CONDUCT
iDg the water frcm the canal
to the turbine was painted with c
mixture of benzine and ssphGiturl as q
protection against rGst. While the work
was II progress the superintendent, pass
ing by, heard sounds of hilarity wltHlc.
which was not strictly in sccord.cc-
with Workmsnlike COnduct, and on look
ing through the manhole eAw the half
z2n employees in bOisterous nlirth dane
ing around, painling each other's faces
and clothes. On seeing the superiEten-
dent they invited hin to come and be
fTescoed. SuspectiDg the cause Cf the
unusual proceedings, he summoned Q
larger force Of men, and much difficulty
was experienced il removing the men, al
! though before all were taken cut the re-
naming ones were already IN state OF
partial stupor. TIE open air revived
them, although it was fol!o wed by lrus-
blue Monday headache"
( waste product OF an important chemi
Cal process is liquid SIS celorless ss dis
titled water, but twice IS heavy. This is
claimed by an inventor at the Mechanics
Fair, Boston, to be valuable element in
the storsge battery. He has discovered
that when used in place Of the usual so!u-
ton in thu Storage battery it Increases
Goth its efficiency and is capacity for re-
talnlog It's charge to an enormous degree.
But not only this, the inventor Is almost
thunderstruck at the feet Of further tx.
pertinent win the liquid the other day
Mixing it with a certain substance, writes
correspondent, whose nature he keeps
secret for the present, and charging q
bottle OF 1t with electricity from dyna-
rao, the result has been 8 brilliant glow
OF the entire contents, light which has
lasted uodiminished ever since. Thus, II
the inventors hopes are borne out, the
result will be az elec ric lamp that may
be freely transp0rtf d anywhere, lasung
for e long period vi bout charging. and
substantially, perhaps. perpetusl.-[ Fec
ui;al r view.
The Electrical Review says that the
new process Of the Hydrogen-Amalgam
Company Of treating gold and silver ores
oy electricity consists in placing ground
ore in DAT pan contsining mercury and
water; in the center of the pan is por-
Gus pot, which contains Head plate il
solution OF sulphate Of soda. An snnusr
disk surrounds the porous pot and floats
upon the SUI face Ct the mercury. The
material Of which this disk is made is not
stated; it is, however, caused to rotate
very rapidly, so as to effect an intimate
mixture OF the ore with the mercury
The whole OF the mixed materials gre
thus Hureed out a. the rim OF the
disk by centrifugal force" Meanwhile,
it should be stated that the lead plate in
the porous pot Is connected with the
positive terminal of the dynamo, and the
mercury in the pan with the negative
terminal. Hydrogen is thus evolved
upon the surface of the mercury from
the wster in tue pan, and thus Cvercomes
the tendency to XldiZe, or "sickeD," as
the workmen cali it. It IL claimed that
as much as 40 per cent. more gold can De
ex ractsd in this way, and as, in addition
10 this, the waste OF mercury By tX.dlzA-
ton is almost entirely obvlated, is is
clear that the process, if tnis be true, is
one Of great practical value.
Nsturalists have not beea able to de-
eide of what material the edible BIRDS
nests are composed. Some have regarded
them as made of pure animal secretions;
others believe that al e en.er largely into
their composition. Mr.. Z. L. Layara has
suggested that the nests of the FIRST quail
ny, or those that are made early In the
season, are made Of secretion, but that
later on, If the first nests be destroyed,
the birds cannot replace them by this Sc
cretion alone. ard have TO use ex,rsneous
substances TO help in the construction
Mr.. J. R Green of the Physiological Lab
oratory, Cambridge, has examined specl-
mems of the nests of various qualities, and
mas found the N eli to become alike gelatin-
Gus in texture on soaking, and made
up OF lsmn &c affixed by their faces to one
another. Some nests of Inferior quality
showed the presence of 81. e, but neither
IN their mode Of disposition nor in the
quantity did they confirm Mr.. Layard's
view. The scanty amount and irregular
position Of the 81. 8 would be better &c
counted for on the theory of their being
accidental constituents. The nest sub
stance gave NO micro-chemicsl reactions
tn could connect If st sll with csllulose,
so that 1t could not be formed by she par
tisi digestion Of the sle a and regurgita-
ton Of the resulting matter. On the
other hand, it did givegstriking evidence
of its close relationship with the sub
stance mucine described by various
authors. and well kaown as 8 produc. of
the animal body.